...to make iPhone apps full time. Very interesting article on newsweek : http://www.newsweek.com/id/216788/output/print
Don't leave your job...
(32 posts) (20 voices)-
shadaz
MemberThis is an example of why tools like cocos2d are very important. Imagine if you spent another 4-6 months building what cocos2d gives you out of the box, you would end up even deeper in the hole. I personally do this as a hobby, and I enjoy it, but if this is all you got and/or quit your day job/mtg the house.. then good luck!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm glad articles like this are turning up, because it will hopefully discourage all the get-rich-quick types who came flooding into app development after they read an article about the rich developer of "ifart" last year.
I make games as my full time job, and while our app has done pretty okay, it's return really isn't any better than we get from our client work. The app store is not a gold rush, if you don't love making games please go away :P
Posted 2 years ago # -
'...it will hopefully discourage all the get-rich-quick types who came flooding into app development after they read an article about the rich developer of "ifart" last year.'
I agree! Even Apple continues to promote the App Store as a Gold Rush and it's just not happening. It takes an original concept, solid execution, and either luck or a brand name to succeed in the marketplace.
Take my new app I'm working on as an example. It combines all the coolness of an iFart app (delayed fart, alarm fart, etc) and adds a totally original feature - flaming farts!
That's right, on the screen is a lighter that you 'flick' to light, and if you time it right - whoosh! Farty fire goodness!
I can see it now...the golden beaches, pina coladas, and endless days of relaxation after I release my app and make a cool million.
BTW, I haven't finished with it yet so nobody steal my idea, okay?
Posted 2 years ago # -
This article seems a bit silly though, it's like: "look how badly this guy who made $250000 is doing", "who knows if the guy who made $800k can have another success". I'm sorry, but those people have had MASSIVE success. Even if they never have another hit, that's an amazing amount for an indie developer.
Keep in mind that the indie games business has never been about massive riches. The iPhone levels the playing field, but it's not magic. I just wanna be able to eventually make games full time, I don't think anyone should ever expect to get rich. I'd be lucky enough just to get to make games all day long, because that's what I'd be doing even if I didn't have to work. :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
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Juntaou
MemberI still think the app store is a gold rush. Every single "gold rush"(including the real one in california) is littered with both the failure and the success stories. The percentage of people who make it big in any gold rush is always very small. You just have to know that going into it and be smart about it... AKA Don't quit your day job before you have a solid foundation already built(I say that but then you have stories like the guys who made World of Goo, who did quit their day jobs, sell their cars, move into the same apartment, etc... and they made it big... /shrug) Either way I still think you can make it big in the app store. Good design, graphics, game play, *cough* a completely random endorsement from apple *cough*, and a LOT of luck(Excluding the luck of getting the apple endorsement, that is extra).
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi all,
One of my friends has made over $37,000 from 5 iPhone apps. It has taken him 9 months to earn that money. I think those earnings are more realistic for the majority of us but I don't feel that's enough money to warrant quitting your job over.
Personally, I love creating fun games and any extra income that comes out of it is a bonus.
And don't forget your career options, employers in my country (UK) are already starting to recruit people to build iPhone apps for them and they are paying very good money to these developers. The catch...they won't interview people unless they have at least one or two published apps on the App Store. So I guess we'll all need to hurry up and get coding :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hey dnsolo, I'm in the uk too, near the outskirts of south london, where are you based?
Do you mind asking what type of apps your friend made? Are they more utility type things?I agree with the consensus here, you need to be doing it for the love it mainly, and if your lucky & put in a lot of effort you might make an ok salary out of it, or a small contribution to your general income.
I've been surprised how many jobs are still advertised in the uk for iphone developers with pretty reasonable salaries, so at least there's fall back options (I presume its the same in a lot of countries).
As for the article, like most news media, the journalist is trying to make a big deal out of minor points to catch headlines (which seems to have worked here). As others have mentioned, if if you get one 'hit', your doing well, and have the funding to make a career out of it, even if you perhaps never make the same amount on one app/game again, it gives you the foundation to create a profitable company....
Posted 2 years ago # -
"I say that but then you have stories like the guys who made World of Goo, who did quit their day jobs, sell their cars, move into the same apartment, etc... and they made it big... /shrug"
It's worth mentioning though, that the guys who did World of Goo were both professional game developers with years of experience.
Like I said, making games is my day job, but it's still, you know, a JOB -- lots of work to get success!
Posted 2 years ago # -
+1 to Matt's analysis. The article is contradictory. Paraphrasing: "This guy made loads of cash, then hired programmers for $XX,XXX, spent $XX,XXX on crap 1, crap 2 and crap 3, and then he was in the red. Then he made $200K." Uhm, yeh, ok.
My own situation: My day job quit on me (massive layoffs), and now I'm doing consulting work and wrapping up my 1st iPhone game after 2 months of 2x full time development (working 16-18 hours a day). I'm not looking to strike gold. I just want to be able to feed my cat at the end of the day. Paying my rent would be bonus. I'll think about eating after the first two are taken care of.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Even though my previous post was quite sarcastic, I still believe a fairly original idea, or something with an original twist, is necessary for success. No doubt, churning out apps month after month can earn steady income - but to strike gold, an app maker needs to do something different from the rest.
If someone strikes it rich just copying another app, they probably got luckier than the other app maker (noticed on websites, etc) and/or made fewer coding errors (crashed less often, smoother controls, etc) to make it more accepted.
The downside to making original apps is when you don't get noticed after you make a very cool app. Then another publisher with a solid reputation cranks out a copy in a month with better graphics and sounds. The other guy has resources to create the copy and marketing power to make the sales.
In the end, I'd like to make more than the $12,000 I made last year. If I break even then I will quit my (all) day job, and make apps all day (& night) long.
Yes, that's right, 12k - actually, that salary is pretty good for the country I live in now. Though I still don't have transportation, and eating a pizza once a month is a treat. I don't even want to get into what I had to go through to get an Apple computer for development and an iPod Touch to test apps on.
I am glad to have discovered the joy of Mac computing, however.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I hate to be a wet blanket, but from my experience originality is not the key factor.
The biggest successes in the games industry in general are not "original" game designs (see: Blizzard). Originality comes into play more, as you say, javy in an original "twist" -- something that separates you from the crowd. People can pull off wholly original game designs, but it's a risky proposition and involves a lot of prototyping and trashing. On the other hand, that doesn't mean copying a hugely crowded area is a great idea (we're probably just about done with tower defense games at this point).
What's more important in my opinion: knowing your audience, good balanced game design, and production values. Not necessarily slick art (although that helps), but good tight controls and a well tested game. QA and playtesting should be like half of your development time.
Posted 2 years ago # -
malphigian just said exactly my views. A good game isn't just the idea (thought the idea is important), the implementation makes a huge difference.
About the whole gold rush thing, I still feel it exists because the AppStore is so far away from a level playing field. The top100 apps make what, like 99% of revenue? I'd rather see an AppStore where users have a lot more input and control over which applications get exposure.
How can you take seriously "New & Noteworthy", "What's Hot", and "Staff Favorites"? Those aren't user driven, it's just Apple picking apps for you, and how many of those are ever free? For that reason, you never know if they are actually any good. If it was user driven, a paid app would only make it there if users actually thought it was worth it.
Since those categories don't really represent what users are enjoying, they have to rely on the top100 lists, which doesn't work at all for exposing new apps that are fun but not necessarily top100 apps.
I don't see this changing, as this would involve putting more control over app exposure into the hands of users, which would be taken away from Apple, and we all know how willing Apple is to give control over to users ;).
Posted 2 years ago # -
Although I definitely do agree with you LongJohnnyE, I think user driven rankings(etc.) would have to be done REALLY well in order for them to be better than the current system. With ratings and reviews in their current state, you have huge companies that constantly "game" them by creating fake users and fake reviews. If user feedback could make a bigger difference to the popularity of the game, fake ratings and reviews would get WAY worse.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Related to malphigan's point, here's a video from the CEO of Firemint on App Store marketing(and other stuff):
Get the Flash Video It's well worth watching. In one part he talks about how you shouldn't create something 100% unique and original, because then nobody will know what it is. Instead, he recommends that developers take a proven game concept(or at least something people can relate to, like flight control), and then put their own twist on it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I see many people complaining about how the app store is broken but not many realistic solutions. I myself have pondered solutions but each time I think I have it, I realize it won't work. This may be why Apple has not addressed it yet.
All we can do as developers is write great software and hope it appeals to the masses. I still believe if an app is really that special it will make it. There have been many good apps produced by this community, but only a select few have a high enough appeal factor and their sales reflect that. I was hoping my game would do much better than it has but if I look at it from an end users view, I can understand why it hasn't. I feel my next game is going to prove if what I just typed is true or not.
Posted 2 years ago # -
"see many people complaining about how the app store is broken but not many realistic solutions. I myself have pondered solutions but each time I think I have it, I realize it won't work. This may be why Apple has not addressed it yet."
I strongly disagree. The App Store and iTunes in general are not well designed. Surprising for Apple given their reputation, but true nonetheless. I think they don't really have a handle on how to manage so much constantly changing content.
Some obvious things missing:
-The search engine is weak and doesn't pull from the existing relationships they have between games.
-The "categories" system could benefit greatly from a tagging system which customers can contribute to. This would help search results a lot.
-The related games/customers also bought could be greatly expanded (think of the various recommendation engines Amazon has) -- maybe Genius will fix this.
-Apple, as always, refuses to give users more tools in their desire to keep everything simple. For example, an advanced search that allows sorting/filtering by average rating, number of ratings, release date (original and update), tags, etc. E.g. Why can't I view a subcategory and filter it by games in the last month with a rating higher than 3?
-The ratings system is lousy and it should be prompting people to rate apps they own more (other than when they delete it).That's just scratching the surface.
Seriously, it's poorly designed and there are literally hundreds of good solutions out there on web sites. Apple puts simplicity above all else, even when it hurts their customers (see: 1 button mouse).
I totally agree with your conclusion there though JD, this isn't something we have control over in any case.
Posted 2 years ago # -
malphigian - I like some of your suggestions, especially the advanced sorting. However, most of the other suggestions you make are too general. Sit down and try to hash each one out and how to implement and how to prevent abuse at the same time. Not so easy.
And back to the advanced search capabilities mentioned - they would have to develop or purchase a search engine with all those capabilities as well as support the added infrastructure and costs associated with it. On the surface adding advanced search seems easy but there is lots behind the scenes. I should know because I am part of the Enterprise Search Group at a major US Wall St. firm. It's not cheap and I don't think Apple wants to get into it if they easily just give people category searches with simple sorting.
Posted 2 years ago # -
For developers who would like to make a modest amount of money on the app store (without missing the chance to win big), a cautionary tale:
This sort of thing may be blindingly obvious to everyone else, but it’s dawned on me that the biggest mistake I’ve made so far in iPhone development is not being more social.
My business partner and I are web developers. We’re very used to building sites for other people, where sales and marketing are specifically Not Our Problem. On top of that, I’m your typical anti-social nerd.
We had a neat little idea for a game, and I’d been looking for an excuse to finally learn some variant of C, so we built it in our free time over a month. Twice, actually: once for the iPhone OS and once in JavaScript for a free in-browser demo.
And now no one cares. Nor should they.
I’m used to design and development being the only things I have to worry about. I didn’t even think about “marketing” until we were already in the app store. I knew we’d eventually have to do it (I’m not quite that naive, although I know plenty of developers who are), but I assumed it could be dealt with whenever it was convenient. And somehow I thought the app store would do a lot of it for us.
If I had it to do over, I’d split my time between coding and posting constructively on every iPhone game forum I could find. I’d give other developers feedback, post reviews in the app store, and generally try to make myself useful to the community so when it came time to post my own game I wasn’t just another anonymous prospector.
If this sounds cynical, I really don’t mean it to be. I’m not saying “pretend to be helpful so people will owe you.” I just think it’s easy for developers to be completely focused on what they’re building, especially on platforms with low entry barriers like the web or iPhone, and forget that none of it matters without people.
The iPhone ecosystem is and probably should be based on word of mouth. No matter how much Apple improves app store search, it won’t be a replacement for people talking about your game. With luxury items like games, it’s rare that someone knows they want your product before they hear about it it — so buzz isn’t nice, it’s necessary. And the best way to get it is to help generate it for others.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Absolutely. :)
Seeing something I wrote running on an iPhone was as big a thrill as the first time (in 1996 ... hah) I saw my own cgi script running on a real live web server. I’m not about to give this up.
One of the nice things about a low entry barrier is the even lower re-entry barrier.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Seems like this article has expired... Would anyone have the updated link?
Posted 1 year ago # -
nevermind... I think I found it... required some fancy google searching
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/10/05/striking-it-rich-is-there-an-app-for-that.html
Posted 1 year ago # -
Petey_Pii
Member"Most apps take at least six months of full-time work and cost between $20,000 and $150,000 to develop, according to Forrester Research, which covers the tech industry."
If you have $150,000 to spend on an app in 6 months do you really need to be developing apps? I would like to see where Forrester Research get these statistics. How much have people here spent on developing apps? Just wondering as i don't think most apps cost at least 20k
Posted 1 year ago #
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